Independent Shorts Awards

A program designed to prepare the minds and bodies of prospective trainees and instill the virtues necessary to get selected, Air Force Pararescueman Brian Silva brings his passed experiences and knowledge of Pararescue and takes us through a two day training program.
Directed by Ralph Lucchese (USA)

A short film that confronts the choices three siblings have to make after being taken out of the foster care system and placed with their uncle.
Directed by Maggie Budzyna (USA)

Fatima, a woman who accepts herself as she is … woman. With a physique, a pride and a charisma that only she knows how to give.
Leah, woman by choice where there is a lot of perfection in her being, while just some people see the imperfect.
Catalina, queen, mother and someone with kind and love to splurge. Woman with magnificent anecdotes and acts as a girl.
A film that is divided into three poems dedicated to all women, regardless of race, age, religion or sex. Three poems with three different women representing all the others. Three poems that be part one.
Because all women are poetry, and because poetry is woman.
Directed by Osmani (Mexico)

A female wardrobe designer who can only use black and white receiving an assignment to use colors, she is struggling with that until she meets another female designer.
Directed by Luyin Zhao (USA)

A thirteen-year-old refugee girl, ostracized by her classmates, seeks an opportunity to participate in a group physics experiment at her school.
Directed by George Leontakianakos (Greece)

While at war, a US Army Sergeant helps one of his soldiers cover up the murder of another making it look like an accidental death. His life is turned upside down as the soldier is racked with guilt and wants to confess his crime.
Directed by Wendi Sun (USA)

The story takes place in a humid small town in Southern China. The director starts the story with an absurd setting: a middle-aged man is facing the critical moment of his life, to “rise” (transform from a commoner to a state free from worries or burdens by exercising rituals), when his son stumbles into trouble. His son falls sick. Challenged by all these mundanities, the man decides to give up “rising” and returns to his normal life.
Directed by Lu Yuanjiong (China)

Mateo, an 83-year-old man lives in a town and has refused to speak. Immersed in his silence and isolated from the world he navigates between reality and fantasy, mixing stories stored in the memory of the heart with the person with whom he has shared his life.
Directed by Javier Montes d’Arce (Mexico)

Farm girl Felice struggles between leaving home for her photography dream and taking on the farm land that has been her family legacy for generations.
Directed by Liv Li (USA)

A young woman reflects on a significant summer from her adolescence, one filled with personal change and marred by her best friend’s unusual behavior.
Directed by Emily Fisher (USA)

A girl who never wants to be in the relationship.
Directed by Manatsadabhorn Pongchinnartham (USA)

“Maga!” A story of an extreme republican and an extreme democrat argue their day away at work. Unfortunately their day jobs are as hit men. Does their political views contradict their personal views? of course they do …..They are Americans.
Directed by Jordan C Michael (USA)

Hell is when you have to watch some wrong shit happen and can’t do shit about it.
Directed by Christopher Rucinski (USA)

A seemingly perfect woman has what appears to be a happy 30th birthday party with the ones she loves. But under her perfect façade lies a hidden life full of secrets, tragedy, and unfinished business. When tragedy strikes, it is those closest to her that are caught the most off guard, begging the question, can you ever truly know someone?
Directed by Alana Grace (USA)